Benefits to financial planners of selling corporate super

For financial planners, corporate super provides an excellent opportunity to expand your business in a cost-effective manner. Here we explain some of the benefits of getting involved in corporate superannuation.

Corporate super funds offer financial planners an excellent opportunity to expand their business as employers increasingly look to corporate super funds offering more than just a simple super fund in which to pay employees’ compulsory super contributions.

Corporate superannuation is fast becoming an important, and lucrative, market for superannuation providers with competition among the superannuation funds becoming increasingly fierce. As a result, large companies are being offered a wide range of other financial options for employees in order to win corporate business.

Where previously, many employers would look for a cheap, simple, no-thrills option in which to contribute to their employees’ retirement savings, today, they are being wooed with a whole plethora of financial options and insurance benefits. For example, instead of the one single capital guaranteed investment option for all employees, corporate super funds now offer members a whole range of investment options, from low risk capital guaranteed options through to higher risk Australian and international specialist funds. The range of insurance options has also dramatically improved with salary continuance, temporary disablement and trauma cover now available to many employees.

Financial education is also another added benefit that the super funds are providing to corporate super clients. And it’s this financial education that can provide financial planners involved with corporate super funds with a cost-effective way to increase business. The super funds now typically provide a members’ only website with information on many financial topics ranging from superannuation to buying a home and budgeting and saving. Seminars on a wide range of financial planning topics are now conducted for employees in the workplace. As a financial planner, these seminars provide you with a cost-effective way to attract new clients to your business as you can position yourself as a financial expert and develop a trusting relationship in an environment that the employee feels comfortable in, namely their workplace.

Your position as the financial planner for a corporate super fund will provide you with clients who are moving through the various life stages where financial planning advice is vital. You will have the opportunity to deal with employees who are getting married…or divorced. You will have access to employees who are buying their first property, or starting a family. You will have access to employees who are becoming empty nesters, or who have just received an inheritance. You will also have access to employees who are leading up to retirement or are now ready to retire.

All these life stages require professional financial planning advice and for many of these employees, you will be the only financial planner with whom they have had any contact.

How to get involved in corporate super
Some tips on how to get your foot in the door with a lucrative corporate super client:

• Position yourself as being able to provide a range of services including employee financial education through seminars, marketing material and a member’s only website.
• hop around different superannuation providers for the best deal for the client. Consider what added benefits the super fund is prepared to offer.